Around 20 tattoo studios from all over Java island gathered in Dafam Hotel, Semarang for this event held by STAR (Semarang Tattoo Artists). CarpeDiem TattooFamily were roadtripping again! Rory was coming along, wanted to join the tattoo contest; and Rio/Koplo from Rejeki Tattoo and his partner, Fredy, too. Rio’s home is in Banyumanik, it’s about 30minutes from the venue, so we stayed there. His family is super nice! Thanks a lot for his parents and twin brothers for letting us stayed for 2 nights there

First day – Feb 26, 2011

The first day, Feb 26, was quite quiet. The first show was the pairs of canine fitting on Hendro Dewisurah; then our beloved host, Mr. Freddy Mock, collaborated with Hendro, tattooed Putche’s back. Some tattooists friends were tattooing their customers, while some others prepared for the tattoo war on the next day, or still hanging out and say hi to each other. This event is only a day after Magic Ink’s tattoo event (Magic Wave’s anniversary) in Bali, so obviously there were lotsa chit-chats about the event here and there

the pairs of canine fitting

Hendro Dewisurah (left) and Freddy Mock (right), tattooing Putche

the collaboration result...Freddy Mock's (left) and Hendro's (right)

lunch time! Soto Lamongan

Dimas Praja studying foo-dog for Rory's upcoming tattoo

Lois and Rory. Sketching everywhere

Then around 7.30 PM, the extreme tattoo performance begun. Every booth sent one of their tattooists to tattoo one model. The main imagery is a star, to represent STAR (Semarang Tattoo Artists). With various tattooists, there would be various style of stars. If there were 20 booths, there would be 20 tattooists at once, but since some tattooists were still tattooing on their booths, not everyone participated. But with 12 tattooists, it’s still a gangbang

Extreme Tattoo Performance

Lois represented CarpeDiem TattooStudio

Lois' star for Wawan, the model

Friends were everywhere, old and new. Ucha, the president of Indonesian Sub Culture (ISC) sang Soldier of Fortune for the rest of us who still stayed in venue after the first day’s over.

friends everywhere

Indonesian Sub Culture's Soldier of Fortune

Second day – Feb 27, 2011

It was the day for Tattoo War and Tattoo Contests. From the start of the event, everyone’s busy preparing designs for the tattoo war.

Dimas Praja preparing the design

few minutes to the tattoo war, guys!

Dimas Praja was doing a dragon-koi tattoo on Fredy Nurdiansyah’s leg. Five hours in fact is not enough to finish the tattoo perfectly, but shortly Dimas Praja won the second place (runner up) for the Oriental category. Congratulations, Dimas!

the dragon-koi, still half-way to go, 2nd place at best oriental category

congratulations!

The trophies....and yaaayyyy CarpeDiem got one!

There were tattoo contests too. One of the contests was Queen of Tattoo, for a lady who has the best back piece tattoo. And the Queen is Mrs. Mock! She’s a beautiful, charming lady, and she deserves to be a queen

the Queen of Tattoo

Lois with Mr. and Mrs. Freddy Mock. They're the sweetest couple in every tattoo show

Dimas and Mr. Freddy Mock

Tattooists who participated on the tattoo extreme performance

So, after every trophy and certificate went to the owners, the event finished. That’s wrap! And then it’s time to relax a bit and had some fun!

in front of Dafam Hotel, the venue

in Tugu Muda park, Semarang

We planned to have the after party in Lawang Sewu. Lol. For anyone who don’t know what place it is, it’s one of the scariest old buildings in Java island (or Indonesia, maybe?). We arrived there at 10PM, but the guard said the gate won’t open for visitors til 1AM (duh!) so we decided to wait til 1AM inTugu Muda park, across Lawang Sewu.

It’s fun to meet old friends, and finding new friends! Equal in passion of art, and having the equal pride in tattooing! See you in the next event!

PS. We picked random pictures from our own collection (CarpeDiem TattooStudio), Mock Tato, and Cindy Bond dJAP. There are tons more pictures on their facebook account.. Thank you!